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“My message to the 250 people here [at the factory] is we have to go for it this year. This is it ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ the final chance. We’ve given you the best infrastructure, the best potential drivers but it is now down to all of you to go and do it. If we’re at the back I don’t think I’m going to carry on.”

“We know Pastor [Maldonado] is fast, but what I suspect is, we will be handling the same situation we had with Romain, which is trying to control that speed more and make it come out when it is really required.”

Comment of the day

Lots of readers are very pleased to see Kobayashi return to F1:

Very welcome to see Kobayashi back. That should guarantee an extra level of madness at Suzuka. And good to see the team going back to a policy of at least one decent experienced driver again. Before 2013, they always had either Trulli, or Kovalainen, or both. (What?óÔé¼Ôäós Kovalainen doing now, by the way? More golf?)

Ericsson?óÔé¼Ôäós an underwhelming choice, like Chilton last year. I?óÔé¼Ôäód have preferred to see Rossi get the drive, he looked ready for it in his practice runs. Maybe he?óÔé¼Ôäóll take to F1 better than GP2 ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ like Kobayashi did.@Tomsk

Happy birthday!

On this day in F1

Mike Hawthorn was killed 55 years ago today in a road accident. He was the reigning world champion at the time but had left the sport a few weeks earlier after taking the title in a year which saw the deaths of Stuart Lewis-Evans, Luigi Musso, and Hawthorn’s close friend Peter Collins.

Fernandez actually said on ted’s notebook on sky f1 that if they didnt score a point you would “find me hanging around those trees over there” which I thought was a bit morbid. Also erricson said he picked no. 9 and kobayashi said he picked no. 10

Also the log in button seems to have dissappeared on android, using chrome.

It’s nice to see that Kobayashi is prepared to race for free – respect to him. It’s also cool of Perez to congratulate him, I remember him saying last year that he believed Kobayashi could get a seat in the future and thankfully he was right.

I’m also glad to see Koln and Schalke 04 showing their support to Schumacher.

2nd December: No title sponsor announcement. 24th January: Likewise. Although there could still be one before Melbourne, I’m not holding out much hope. Maybe they are delaying a sponsor until 2015 for the Honda tie-up. Not that I’m against them not having one for a year as they seem financially sound going on Neale’s comments, it’s just I like to see a lot of sponsors on the cars because it suggests F1 is in a healthy state financially (pay driver sponsors raise that debate I suppose).

Chrome and black with prominent McLaren logos for 2014 then? It’s going to be a nightmare with Mercedes!

He’s doing what Raikonnen did, except for the rejected contract with Ferrari. Well, it looks like he prefers racing over money (I would do the same, I would pay to have the chance to run one lap in a F1… I would drink a sip of fuel if they requested it as a condition to drive!!!).
What is what he leaves in Ferrari anyway? Of course the money and the marketing, but I don’t see him going to replace Kimi or Alonso (except a strange situation) and remember last time Ferrari used their 3rd driver (Badoer) they went on for Fisichella (who was already 2nd in Belgium in Force India) and things went wrong for the Italian. guy. I guess he prefers driving the rolling roadblock than being just a ghost driver.

Heâ€™s doing what Raikonnen did, except for the contract he (KK) didn’t take with Ferrari. Well, it looks like he prefers racing over cash (I would do the same, I would pay to have the chance to run once in a F1â€¦ I would drink a sip of fuel if they asked me to do it!!!).
What is exactly what he leaves in Ferrari anyway? Of course the salary and the marketing, but I donâ€™t see him going to replace Kimi or Alonso (except an odd situation) and, I remember last time Ferrari used their 3rd driver (Badoer), they looked “outside” and then they went on for Fisichella (linked with Ferrari yes, but who was already 2nd in Belgium in Force India) and things went wrong for the Fisi. I guess Kamui prefers driving a Catherham than being just a PR driver.

McLaren’s situation is curious… can only imagine it’s because they want to do a one-year deal, but any sponsors with enough cash know it takes more time than that to utilise the link up properly through advertising, etc.

I’d have thought them above this, but… what if they’ve decided to flog the space on the car race-by-race? Might be able to get a decent amount by selling to (examples) Gazprom for Russia, Etihad for UAE, o2 for Britain, Westpac in Australia… bump Mobil 1 to main sponsors for USA…

Add in a touch of sponsor work for the drivers at each race that they’d have otherwise been doing for Vodafone, and it would bring in a few pennies.

The regulations say no substantial changes though, so whether or not that would count…?

That’s what you want to do to promote a stable, motivated and happy workforce. Threaten everybody’s jobs and put a metaphorical gun to everybody’s heads.

Can’t say I blame Fernandes even though there have to be better ways of saying what he did. And fair play to him for speaking out against the double points farce. However he’s had to endure the ignominy of failing to score a point in four seasons, as well as being beaten by a fellow backmarker with a far smaller budget and less resources, although to be fair in 2013 Marussia had the Senna-esque Max Chilton. I’m rooting for both Marussia and Caterham to start truly fighting the midfield. We’re overdue a pleasant surprise from them!

@colossal-squid I’m sure HRT workers would have loved to know before hand that they wouldn’t be taking part in 2013 even if the writing was on the walls (metaphorically of course). Now you have Caterham going into it’s fifth season and not looking any closer to the mid tier groups, at least Jordan and somewhat but very little Minardi had success up front or in the middle before residing at the back for several years, but not the new guys.

If I was an engineer working at Caterham I’d be happy to know that I have nearly a year to find a new job before he closes the doors. You can’t keep hemorrhaging money and expect the mediocre results to suffice, there is no easy way to tell someone that their job is probably not going to exist soon.

@magillagorilla I’m sure the HRT workers would indeed have loved to have known for sure if they were going to be racing or not. But to me here’s the vital distinction:

Fernandes hasn’t given his employees notice of termination, he’s given them an ultimatum. That’s a big difference. How would you like being told that your hard work over the past four years hasn’t been good enough, and that you’re to show a big improvement or face being fired?

I know that if that happened to many people the last thing it would lead to is a constructive working environment. Some pressure at work can be beneficial, too much and the atmosphere in the workplace along with the worker’s performance can nose-dive. Creating much more stress and uncertainty for your employees rarely has beneficial outcomes. Fernandes could have done this in a million different, better ways, least of all not do it in public.

@colossal-squid – I concur. Not a big fan of the negative incentive style of management even if he is just being honest. In contrast look back to the celebration in the Marussia garage after the last race of 2013 when they took 10th place in the WCC. That was inspiring. My wish is to see both Marussia and Caterham do well and perform better than last season. I can understand his frustrations, but maybe Fernandes should look towards selling the team to someone more suited for the long term rigors of an F1 team.

It’s wonderfully refreshing to see Kamui racing for free. It has always hacked me off that so many drivers put so much emphasis on their paychecks when it comes to contract negotiations. It’s a shame because money is never the reason that any drivers get involved in motorsport in the first place, and yet so many drivers seem to forget that. Good on you, Kamui.

Perhaps it is a little bit of a shame that for all his money-raising efforts he will only get a single season with a backmarker team. That said, Kobayashi always seems to be at his best when drinking in the last chance saloon. Also, 2014 does represent the best chance yet for Caterham to score that elusive first point. If Australia is as chaotic as Horner predicted last week, Kobayashi could do it as soon as round 1.

You’re right, I can’t imagine any of the current champions would drive for free, once they’ve won they have nothing to prove anymore, so some of that hunger they once had slowly disappears, and money helps them keep going, Kimi being the best example of course.

Why It Wasnâ€™t Nominated: Formula What? The Academy doesnâ€™t pay much attention to movies about sports that arenâ€™t boxing, and Rush had a particularly difficult hill to climb, since the average voter probably doesnâ€™t know about this very European story. Star Daniel Bruhlâ€™s turn as the icy bucktoothed Lauda was a physical transformation comparable to past winners like Daniel Day-Lewisâ€™ Lincoln or Phillip Seymour Hoffmanâ€™s Capote, but since Bruhl is a lesser-known actor playing a barely-known true-life person, he didnâ€™t get the typical biopic bump.

This is nothing new, the Academy has always been short sighted and sometimes very good movies get overlooked completely, having said that I agree Rush is not good enough to be nominated, however Daniel’s performance is very good indeed and is a shame he isn’t mentioned.

It was never going to get nominated. Studios have to lobby really hard just to get a film considered as one of the candidates for an award – they need to secure new theatrical runs, promote the film all over again, and spend a small fortune all over again. If they make that short list, then the process starts all over again. And if a film doesn’t turn a profit domestically (read: the United States), it can pretty much forget about making the short list at all. That’s not a prerequisite, of course, but it is something of an unwritten rule. It is unlikely that anyone involved in the production of Rush even considered lobbying for an Oscar.

On the one hand, I’m happy to see Kamui back. On the other hand… if I was in his position I think I’d have taken the Ferrari contract. Sports cars ain’t a bad gig and especially for a team like Ferrari. Plus, if they’re looking to have him help test the simulator, it means they at least acknowledge his expertise in F1 and might offer him a test seat down the line. And a test seat could turn into a race seat.

I dunno. Caterham would have to really turn around with the new regs to make me feel like this was a good decisions for Koby.

Sports cars option will always be there for Kamui. F1 not so, and it worth a gamble for him being Japanese. Imagine he does impress next season and some one at McLaren does not. I bet Honda will not think twice.

@joey-poey: There may be some sense in what you write, but turning down a certain F1 drive for a background job at Ferrari which may lead to a test seat which may lead to a drive? There are so many things which could go wrong with that.

Some remarks about EarthPrix: at the moment it sounds still a bit vague, even though 50% of the article is about Clarke meeting with various parties and them having interest. The challenges all sound a bit dull to be honest: 300 km long distance run? Slalom? Drag race? Urban environment? However I do like the freedom of having no restrictions for the power unit – I would love to see F1 having a clause in the regulations to allow electric engines, just like turbo engines in the late seventies. It reminds me a lot about Formula Student: I love the variety of the cars (I love reading about the technology they can come up with), but because there is no interaction between vehicles, it is very dull to watch.

I guess most fanatics here have spent some time developing their own vision of motor racing in the future. In my opinion, F1 in particular has become too clean, too many people are working on one car. Imo, it would be much more fun to watch cars competing that are designed and operated by just a handful of people. On the other hand, F1 needs to become more open and it should allow more technological freedom. But anyway, those are just my thoughts.

I think it would be great if they are able to do such an event @andae23, I agree that the Formula Student project (and solar races etc) should be ideally part in this too.
And any racing series that manages to pull off working with them would get a boost to its interest and relevance. IMO it would be the ideal thing to pair with some of the formula E races, and with Dakar, maybe with LeMans or Daytona or the Indy 500 too. And I would love if they would stage it around an F1 race, although for that to happen there need to be someone else in charge first (although many people from F1 could be part of the event non the less).

Its draw is more back to basics – the likes of the early car manufacturers/pioneers testing their gasoline, electrical, steam driven and whatever automobiles against each other in an endurance race on real roads – although a lack of safety sensibly moved it off open roads. I would really see it as complementary, and maybe a binding aspect, rather than replacing any one series because I do not think everyone would be interested in a dragrace or an endurance event or a funny cars show.

I’ve not been happy with Fernandes ever since he gave up on the Lotus name after 1 (2?) years. If he leaves at the end of the year, then fine – I hope someone more dedicated to the sport comes along. I remember when he first started syaing that he was here for the long-term – yeah right.

And I think it was probably a mistake by Kamui to hitch his wagon to their train. I know F1’s great but sportscar racing wouldn’t have been that bad surely…?

Would love to get a proper look at that new Force India nose. Hohnny Noble is saying he thinks the perception is that it’ll be ugly but after the stepped noses how much worse could it get?

THIS …this is what Formula1 is all about! Driver announcements, car presentations and the ongoing speculations during winter-testing – that’s pure excitement for real f1-fanatics! I always enjoy this part of the off-season period, because of all the uncertainty regarding the true strength of the cars/teams. Like an addict i’m searching for new information and photos about the new cars. …who set the fastest time on this day, who had best tyre degradation, checking time-monitors on the smartphone …i love it!

This time always reminds me of one thought: To me, the attraction of F1 is much more than just racing + overtaking. The technical side is even more interesting and an important part of this motorsport. If there wasn’t this kind of insight into the sophisticated and unique approaches of every engineering detail, i think i wouldn’t be interested in F1 anymore. Honestly I don’t know, wether there are other motorsport-series, that provide this much technical information – but i believe that it separates F1 from other motorsports. Without this aspect, F1 would become replaceable to me.

Not to forget: Thanks to this website, i get a lot of information to maintain my f1-additiction =) Keep up the good work, Keith!

I’m surprised that the Fernandez comments don’t seem to get more interest on here. As an American, I’ve come to expect to see our sports teams have a chance at coming from behind one year and have the chance to win many games or even a championship the next year. It makes it worth supporting teams even if they aren’t front markers every year. In our NFL (American football), they have a salary cap on players and they give the last place teams higher draft picks for talent. A way to balance things and hence our phrase: “On any given Sunday, any team could possibly beat any other team” It keeps fans involved.

So why is it that Bernie and company just keeping giving more and more money to the top teams and starving the backmarkers…and then chastising them for being poor. Sounds like the sports world’s version of America’s “trickle down economics” which we’ve seen are an incredibly poor excuse for a real policy.

And why does nobody on here seem to care? Am I just out there and it’s not an issue to anyone else that Carterham or Marussia have ZERO chance of even scoring a point???